That’s not your job

THE Voice debate is in full swing, with well argued positions for and against in full swing daily in the serious press.  

For Fremantle council to declare its support for the Yes vote strays far outside its responsibilities. 

Council cannot possibly know what the opinion of the majority of its citizens is on this important subject.

I take serious objection to the proposal that council should spend $35,000 of my rates on representing my community as being in favour of answering Yes to a question concerning which many, including me, have yet to make up their minds.

This is much too important for warm gestures.

Fremantle council strays far from its knitting on many occasions, but this is time it’s much too far.

If they have that much spare cash spend it on the Town Hall and hold a proper debate there.

Gerard MacGill
North Fremantle

No compo for abuse

TAKE away financial incentives for historical sex abuse claims.

What male in his right mind would choose to become a teacher particularly at a private girls’ school when claims alleged to have happened 40 years ago can make their way into our present day courts system.

I think it’s time the state takes away incentives for financial compensation or redress for historical claims greater than 10 years and maybe we would see our stretched police resources and over loaded courts waiting lists reduced to make way for more urgent domestic violence and child protection issues.

Rae Jenkins
Spearwood

On the level

JUST caught the mayor of Freo interviewed on talkback radio. 

Seems she was listing, in order of priority, issues facing the city. 

Closed shops was the first, just nudging out climate change, which stormed home with a wet sail in second place.  

“Yes,” she gushed, “rising sea levels mean that soon the West End will be ankle-deep in seawater.”

Ma’am, sea levels in Freo have been steady since Mrs Dance chopped down that tree upstream at Barrack Street in 1829. 

Not a millimetre up, not a millimetre down. 

Fremantle Harbour has been a working port for almost 200 years and none of the infrastructure has ever required modification to accommodate rising sea levels.

I’ve been swimming at Bicton baths since 1960, and I can assure you the waters edge has remained in the gosh-darn exact-same spot the whole time.

Of course, with the climate change nutters, the seas are going to rise this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next decade, trust us.

With someone with this mindset running Freo, the poor place will remain a shit-hole. Always was. Always will be.

Gary Carter
Leeming

Growth costs

WITH the WA government moving to accelerate suburban infill in Perth, there has been predictable dismay at the possible loss of amenity in our pleasant tree-lined older suburbs. 

I certainly would not want a multi-level apartment block next door in South Fremantle. 

I read the article by Roel Loopers on this topic with some interest (“Change is inevitable,” Roel’s Round, March 4, 2023).

However, the article did not mention that there are better places to consider for high-rise housing before we crowd into our well-established suburbs. 

The old industrial areas around North Fremantle behind Port Beach and around the South Fremantle power station are ready for this type of development. 

Also, major apartment blocks can be built over most railway stations without loss of amenity, as has occurred successfully in Sydney. 

The railway land could be offered to developers in return for some affordable housing being included in their development.

Roel did not cover the reasons for this infill problem. 

The pressure for infill is partly due to WA having a rising population. 

Until we move away from this “growth at any cost” paradigm, we should expect more congestion and environmental problems in the future.

Gordon Payne
South Fremantle

Clowns?

WITH my family being associated with the Fremantle Town Hall during the ’70s and into the ’80s screening children’s films during 

the school holidays, I was dismayed to learn about the neglect of the interior of that gracious old building (“Shabby Town Hall leaves a sour note,” Herald, February 18, 2023). 

In keeping with the virtue-signalling efforts of the council in recent years with cosmetic attempts to portray themselves as caring of the city’s rich heritage such as a spruce-up of the exterior of the Town Hall, their actual track record is appalling. 

The travesty of putting a metal roof on the old asylum building is indicative of the mindset of those guiding the city’s destiny. 

A report that the interior of the Town Hall is to be used by a circus in the immediate future makes me wonder if the clowns who currently congregate and perform in the council chambers are being forced to relocate from their new expensive ostentatious edifice because it is already beginning to fall down around them.

Daryl Binning
Bull Creek